Fire claims heirlooms along with home after week of ownership

Imagine buying your dream home, moving in all your belongings — including your family heirlooms and antiques — and losing the works to an apparent electrical fire after a mere week.

And on top of it all, the home wasn’t insured yet because of impending Hurricane Irene.

It’s a tragic — yet true — story reported by Dan Scanlon on the Florida Times-Union’s jacksonville.com:

Not even owning the house barely a week, fire destroys Green Cove Springs home
Roy Baker said he “fell in love” with the 90-year-old house within sight of the St. Johns River in Green Cove Springs years ago when he had worked on a dock project nearby.
So when he learned the home on Walburg Street was for sale, he and his wife, Amanda, bought it and moved most of their antiques and belongings out of their Jacksonville home this week.
Read the full story here

As the owner of a century home, potential issues like this are always jingling around in the back of my mind.

How can you best prepare yourself to avoid this sort of tragedy?

— Karen Knapstein

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